Originally Posted by kane

I won't judge him too harshly on this bill for two reasons.
1. they say it is a holdover from Bush and they need to sign it to keep the government running. Fighting all the earmarks would be a fruitless battle. They make up 1% of the bill and it could take weeks if not months to get them out. He said today that this was the last of the holdover stuff and from here on out there will much more transparency in how they do things. We will have to wait and see if he means that or if he is just saying that.

2. As he says many of the republicans who are criticizing him for signing a bill filled with pork and earmarks have their own pork and earmarks in the bill and now that it is signed they will run home to their states and tout these programs and the money they got for them. So it is kind of hypocritical on that front.

From here on, now that all of the old business is taken care of we will see if he really means to be transparent and do things in the public eye like he says or if he is just talking a good game and hoping people won't check up on him.